A night of anxiety turned ecstasy, then went into silence.
This was the most important Hong Kong football match in recent years, a win to draw high quality overseas players to Hong Kong team, a win to convert the Kai Tak goers to Hong Kong team fan base, a win to get more exposure, resources and bargaining power for Hong Kong team and players. Spoiler alert: This is the longest writeup here so far, and Hong Kong lost.
The major difference in these 3 Kai Tak games is the class. It has successfully differentiated itself from local matches by the new stadium itself, the amount of ads and the scale of the companies, the sponsorship, inclusion of warm up performances (although I am still against it, I approved the last one), tifo and and other improved PR materials. Therefore it is reflected in the sales - all sold out. The momentum was high.
At 5:30 the outer gates were opened for security check, HKFA merch stand was available after security check near Gate F, providing a good way to spend time (and money) until the stadium gates opened at 6. If you want some good merch, better arrive by 5 to be the first customers. If you don't want to spend anything, IKEA had set up a booth to take photos with their mascots in HKRT jersey, and you may be able to get some cool cards too. Speaking of IKEA, the first noticeable existence was a kiss cam spoof TV ad they first showed in the pre-game ad spots in the October Kai Tak game, they went even further by releasing a teddy bear size HKRT jersey as a gift upon $300 purchase (from Oct - Nov '25). Not only the home jersey, but also a GK one to celebrate Yapp Hung Fai's HK team milestone. No doubt cash is the most important support, just there is some good non-cash supporting means that you can feel the sincerity.
Not a copyright holder of these cards, I scanned both sides and share these memorabilia as a record. Thank you IKEA staff for these lovely ephemera.
Maybe I should state the expectation if you get a Hong Kong RT football match fanzone ticket, it should be explicitly stated and promoted for the best of fanzone and spectators.
- Stand through the whole game. Everyone stands up and chants almost non-stop, if you don't stand up, you see nothing. Don't bother asking people to sit down, the whole area is standing up. For other areas, usually the fanzone would encourage all to stand up at around 70-80 minutes onwards, that perhaps make things more exciting?
- Expect to help out if you find material at/under your seat, such as large flag, part of a tifo. Being a part of fanzone means you sacrifice a bit of your comfort, voice, the enjoyment to be the enjoyment and spectacle of the game for the love of home team.
- Your seat is not your seat in the fanzone. Your indeed have choosen the zone (3 digit), just not the actual seat. If you see someone occupied your seat, please move on to find another instead of asking people to get out. Please HKFA do something about it to make it explicit, say free seating within fanzone will be sufficient.
- Your vision could be blocked by fanzone material e.g. large flags, or even the person in front standing up but this one is already stated in HKFA's social media.
- Tighter security. Besides the police facing fanzone near the field during national anthem, for the whole time you will see noticeably more security in the fanzone standing at the stairs to execute the rules, mostly no staying in the staircase (except for themselves, how ironic). In this game when you had your ticket scanned for entry, you were immediately lassoed with a wristband that you could hardly take out, to identify your fanzone ticket. No one without this wristband could enter the fanzone the whole game.
- Enjoy the performance. The performers faced directly to the fanzone, this angle is so far not covered by the stadium skycam, other zones can only listen to it while watching the back of the performers on the screens (skycam's limitation). Still better than TV viewers, who had no broadcast available even after the match.
There wasn't much to say about the game, the moment what Hong Kong scored an open goal, I did have hope, thinking the coach had finally changed for good, the team had freshened and thrived. Lol. In my opinion the song performed at half time should only be played after a winning game, but it was fair having Endy Chow to perform during half time when things were so bright. (Doesn't make much sense too to book a performer standing by the whole game and only let him perform when won.) Seeing the performance in front of my own eyes in such frenzy was one of my highlights of 2025, and I believed Endy did prep for this day. No complaint.
It was near half-time, things were really looking hopeful.
The tone flipped after half-time. Two goals in 10 minutes overturned the game. How? Why? Maybe in times like this, you begin to think the chants lack versatility. Why must we force ourselves to sing supportive words, one that showing loyalty to the team, when all I wanted was something to pressure/warn the team to avoid complacency? Maybe I do not fit into the fanzone mentality. Maybe I can only show tough love. Maybe I believe the expressions have to be varied and change according to the situation instead of being 100% devoted without acknowledging the game situation - but if that's what local club fanzones would do then why not Hong Kong team?
If that was a win, you could easily expect a sea of Poznan red for the heroes' lap of honour, but here we had a hard pill to swallow. This photo records the moment when the team approached fanzone to thank the fans (also for some consolation from the entity that always showed support IMO).
A series of dejected-but-thats-the-only-team-you-can-support "We are Hong Kong" vs the short and stormy 'Westwood Out", the former stayed longer.
I really like this photo that it recorded so much, except the dividing noise - "We are Hong Kong" vs "Westwood out". The capo tried to stop the latter by saying "not this" but didn't help much. The anger lingered a bit further and slowly died down. The team stood there soaked all in. Some players cried from the broken heart, from the disbelief of losing a game this way. Nothing on Ashley Westwood's face, maybe he still thought he was the one who knew football the most. He did look pensive though, on how much compensation he could get from a layoff maybe (kudos to him for not showing it then).
Attending a game could mean some (little) sacrifices in terms of ticket price and time cost, but these people from core fanzone gave more than that. I'll write about the work fanzone did behind the 90 minutes.
While fans could enter the stadium at 6, these core people bringing their tools and materials entered at 3 to set up at the venue, I think its their experience made HKFA to open or close the roof for the game. "The materials were blown away when the roof was open!" I think I heard that. Prior to the game, they needed to organise the helpers (how many and what kind of helpers, say flag bearer, drummers etc) to share the tasks etc. Maybe even a little earlier, if they had some idea on what materials to use, they'd submit paperworks to HKFA and get permission. That's not just a game for these people, they are a part of the troops supporting them from behind. That's a reason why they are regarded as the 12th person. During the game, they lead the chant; after the game, they lead the crowd with speeches, and they pack up before leaving.
I was super critical of Westwood, but here is one I'd never, and that he deserved way better than that.
A save from Wang Zhenpeng
I just have write the unjust criticism that floored this goalkeeper, who was not a starter nor regular for Hong Kong team, partly Yapp was so steady that he'd play every game when he could, partly because there were some promising youngsters in the team, and mostly Wang wasn't steady and young anymore so he was lower than low in the HK GK pecking order, so he hadn't played for a long time (except for the friendly prior to this). Let's be honest, his performance wasn't someone you could fully trust, but he wasn't shit.
He splashed water to himself from time to time, showing he knew he wasn't quite there, but he accepted the task and stepped up as he should even though he didn't have the confidence. He was called to play the most important game when no one in the team could step up. Do I blame him for the 2 goals? Yes but it was only a 5% yes. How about the Hong Kong hopeful #1? Where was he when the team needed him? This is not the first time he stirred controversy, when we thought he matured, no. If there was someone to blame for the result, Wang will also be low in the pecking order.
Even this day ended in dismay, I wouldn't want to erase any part in my memory.
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